Chinese television viewers who watch South Korean TV soap operas earn less and are less educated compared to the fans of TV dramas made in other countries, a study has revealed.
Among all Chinese fans of television dramas, those who liked to watch Korean soaps were found to have lower incomes and lower academic backgrounds compared to those who watched popular American and Japanese television dramas, reported last Friday, citing a research paper.
The paper concluded that because most South Korean soaps had weak, illogical storylines, they tended to attract poorly paid and poorly educated people who preferred undemanding, sentimental plots.
The shows did not require intensive reasoning from viewers to keep track of the plots and allowed them to fulfil their need for sentiment, the study explained.
The research was carried out by Kang Myung-koo, a communications professor at Seoul National University. Kang and his team based their results on feedback from a group of nearly 400 Beijing residents aged between 20 and 50 who were asked to watch television dramas produced in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the US.
Popular American shows and a portion of Japanese ones were best received by the well-educated, high-income group as the shows employed more complex plots filled with suspense, the professor claimed.
